David Lee the Founder of Intervention Services and Technologies, Inc.

Letting the truth flow.

Thank you David.

source for post Narconon, Scientology and Intervention Services and Technologies I believe it is necessary to help spread the articles by David Lee. He is the Founder of Intervention Services and Technologies, Inc. and has been writing on reaching4.info. His words are very enlightening and thought provoking. David’s words have already help many get out and speak out.David, I would like to truly thank you from the bottom of my heart. Keep that river of truth flowing.CH

David Lee of Intervention Services and Technologies, Inc.

To SocialTransparency, I’ve put my answer here. To Intelligence, I sent you an email.

There are no industry standards in terms of drug testing within the treatment field that I am aware of. However, the better the facility, the more they focus on sobriety and stability amongst staff.

But, in order to answer your question more fully, I think it’s important to understand the two entirely different cultures that exist in traditional treatment programs vs Narconon. I wish to state that the following is just my opinions and not necessarily 100% written in stone in regards to every center.

In a traditional rehab program, success is primarily measured in terms of days, weeks or years of abstinence. Helping others, making amends, responsibility, growth (spiritual and otherwise) and other things are also important, but the primary focus and primary purpose is to stay sober. That’s why the clients arrived…to get sober and stay sober. Within a traditional setting rehab not all employees are recovering or ex-addicts. But of those who are, they are generally active in recovery circles where their clean time and sobriety dates are public knowledge. In other words, in my support groups in my community everyone knows my sobriety time and I know, to some degree, what everyone else’s is. It’s not necessarily a pecking order, but generally speaking someone with 90 days clean isn’t considered as stable, responsible or together as someone with 10 years. We congratulate each other on milestones. It is not uncommon to ask, within minutes of meeting someone, how much clean time they have. It gives us an idea of where they are at in life and program. Granted there are those with multiple years who are unethical in their lives, but the attitude is that, without sobriety, then what the heck are we doing here. In other words, people generally go to rehab to get and stay sober. Do people lie about their sobriety? Of course. But when you are in a tight knit group it almost always comes out. If I had the ability to sneak a drink or two without consequence, I would have never needed rehab in the first place. Those that sneak, usually are found out pretty quickly. What happens in the dark, always comes out in the light. In terms of employees, it’s generally on the honor system, coupled with a knowledge of them in their personal recovery programs. In addition, traditional programs usually have continual and random drug screening. This isn’t policy nationwide, but does exist in many programs primarily to protect the clients and the organization. There seems to be a greater desire within traditional programs to protect clients from any staff instability, dual relationships, etc.

In my viewpoint, success is looked at much differently at Narconon than elsewhere. All the times I went to Narconon, clean time as a statistic was not necessarily respected or spoken of. Occasionally I asked various Narconon staff/grads/members “how much clean time do you have?” Most didn’t answer, felt I was rude, or told me to “forget about the old AA philosophy”. During their program many clients or students would say “20 days sober for me”, but again this wasn’t something I ever felt was congratulated within a Narconon. Strange. When they became staff they stopped quoting their clean time, eventually.

So if clean time isn’t necessarily respected than what is?

Two things that I’ve noticed. How far up the bridge you were (an OT-4 is generally considered “higher” than someone just clear)….and Stats. Which stat? Whatever stat you focused on as a staff member. If you were a reg (salesperson) your stat was “people admitted to Narconon” per week. If you were a course supervisor it was “people that completed book1, book2, etc” this week. Btw, I’m probably butchering these exact stats. In every Narconon there is an actual phrase for each post on these stats. It’s something like “Students who have completed the Sauna” or something like that. I don’t remember what they are.

And ironically, these stats are generally viewed upon as most important, in my opinion. And if your stats fell, you were looked upon and made to do “conditions” workups. Actually you were always doing conditions. But here is the ironic thing. If you were a salesperson and did 5 “starts” this week, the only way to be considered in a good or “normal” condition is if you were to do one more the next week. In other words, 6. And then you had to do 7, then 8, then 9 per week, etc. The minute you didn’t increase…if you did the same number this week as last week, you were considered in “emergency”. More than a couple behind…considered in ”Danger”. Push, push, push.

So, what does all this have to do with anything? In my experience, if your stats were good and you were “slipping” in your sobriety, it usually seemed to either be ignored or, if found out, you were given a mild ethics condition. It seemed to be a known thing in Narconon that if your stats were up than the ethics are mild. In other words, you didn’t really get punished for out-ethics behaviors at all as long as you were producing…behaviors which could include drinking, acting out, etc. The only time I saw drug test being pushed was if stats were down on an individual. In some cases, however, if it turned out that a large majority of students were mysteriously intoxicated, drug tests at the student and staff level might happen to nip it in the bud. However, I assume that what I witnessed was if a staff member was in an ok stat condition, they were usually pulled off post for a couple weeks up to a month to do their conditions and then put back on post. Which means, at many times during your program, the clients or students could even have more sobriety time than the staff member who was “teaching” them about sobriety. All in all, it was strange because, on occasion we would receive “Staff success stories” published and released by a particular Narconon. One in particular was an individual boasting of 10 years drug and alcohol free. Which was really strange because the year before I was sitting across from him during his retread as he just came off a year long bender.

In addition, every student at Narconon, prior to completing the program, finishes what is referred to as Book 8, the Way to Happiness. In this book it says “Do not take alcohol to excess” and “a little liquor goes a long way”. I have witnessed continual drinking amongst Narconon staff members where the justification was always Book 8. “It says right here that we can drink, just not to excess!” In my first program in Canada, almost every graduate celebrated by going to the local bar, many with staff trainees.

Correction- “Do not take alcohol to excess” and “a little liquor goes a long way”“I think I was quoting from the Scientology Way to Happiness book. The narconon way to happiness doesn’t seem to have that but does have the “be temperate do not drink alcohol to excess” quote.” -David Lee

I have never experienced a traditional program where it was stated anywhere that an alcoholic or addict could drink, as long as they didn’t do it to excess. As an interventionist I had many family member call me after their client completed Narconon and celebrated by drinking, quoting that book and stating that staff members told them they could…that they were “only addicts” and not alcoholic.

I don’t want to leave off by saying to no one at Narconon was committed to sobriety. Many were, but there was an underlying culture that it was not as important as your success. And success was usually different than just mere sobriety. As a motivational group, it might have been fine.